DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17997, 16 April 1930, Page 4

DAY BY DAY.

“Kill that fly” is the universal cry, and we wonder why Science science cannot put an end and to all tormenting insects. Insects. That is a question often asked by serious thinkers, who realise that the greatest fight for the mastery of the earth has yet. to come. We may have beaten the great beasts of the land and gained against Lhe strongholds of venomous reptiles, but make little headway against the insects, who alone remain unsubdued. The housefly is without doubt one of our most dangerous foes, for it goes on all sorts of filth and rubbish heaps. The wasp, which is looked upon as another pest, is really more a friend to man, in that at least it kills numerous flies and other hurtful insects. An observer of a small wasps’ nest found their daily average of flies brought home from the beginning of the season was over 2000, and as the season advanced their number might be multiplied by 12. It is 'so often the insect we fear most that Is a friend in disguise. Even mosquitoes have their use, and except for them our pools would be overcrowded with life and fluid tombs of corpses. While in the water in a larval form they devour substitutes which would otherwise cause corruption. But it is when they ‘‘put on wings” that they become dangerous, and carry microbes fatal alike to human and animal life.